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SAARC U-25 T20 cricket tournament - Schedule and fixtures

Nepal has been drawn to the group B of the SAARC U-25 T20 tournament with the three test playing nations namely India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.Host Maldives along with Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are drawn to Group A while Group B comprises of Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Group Division:

Karnataka Institute of Cricket has been invited by the Maldives Foreign Ministry to represent India. A board official told maldivescricket.org that the BCCI was unable to send an U-25 team to the tournament due to other commitments. However, as it is a SAARC Summit sideline event, the Maldives government wanted all SAARC member states to be represented in the tournament in some capacity. Maldives Cricket also revealed that Bangladesh Cricket Board had a similar problem due to tour commitments by their national side and A team and the ongoing first class cricket. As such the Maldives government is trying to find a representative team from Bangladesh for the tournament.

Changes into Afghan Squad

Meanwhile a few changes have been made to the tentative Afghan squad we announced last week. The captain Mohammad Nabi couldn't be a part of the team due to his age. Therefore Hamid Hassan will be replacing him as captain and Mohmmad Shahzad fullfilng the duty of Hamid as vice captain. Also Asghar Stanikzai and Javed Ahmadi have been let out of the squad for unknown reasons. Instead Rokhan Khan and Najib Tarakai has been called in to replace the former two. Najib Tarakai was also a part of the Afghan Cheetah squad for the Faisal Bank T20 in Pakistan

Haha. The tournament started today, instead of yesterday. Pakistan v India match will be played tomorrow now!

Nepal is set to face Sri Lanka in the opening match of the first SAARC U-25 Twenty20 Cricket Tournament today. Similarly, Hosts Maldives will face against Bhutan in the other match of the opening day.

Though the match was scheduled to start from October 31 in Maldives, the Cricket Board of Maldives has decided to postpone the match as Bangladesh failed to send its team.

As per the revised scheduled - Afghanistan Vs Maldives / India (KIC) Vs Pakistan will take place on November 2, Nepal Vs India / Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka will take place on November 3, Sri Lanka Vs India / Bhutan Vs Afghanistan will take place on November 4, and Nepal Vs Pakistan will take place on November 5.

Similarly, Semi Final 1 and Semi Final 2 is scheduled for November 6 and the final on November 7.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is all set to take on archrivals India in the inaugural South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Under-25 Twenty20 Cup to be played at Fuvahmulah Cricket Ground, Bhutan, (Wednesday) today.

Match will start at 9:30 am Pakistan time. Talking exclusively with this scribe from Bhutan, Pakistan team coach-cum-manager Sabih Azhar said that the boys were in good shape and vow to perform exceptionally well against Indians.

“There is no any particular player to whom the team banks but all the selected players are more than capable of playing this format of cricket. Every player is best suited to Twenty20 format so I don't think their will be any problem for us,” he replied. “We are practicing on this pitch as all the matches will be held on these artificial surfaces,” he said and added that the conditions are different here and boys doing their best to adjust them to prove their mettle against the opponent teams in the tournament..

“I am fully focused on the current assignment and my first aim is to justify my position as the Under-25 team coach and come up to the expectations of Pakistan Cricket Board,” he remarked.
“We have prepared fully and I hope Pakistan will end up as the eventual champions and after accomplishing this job then I will think about other issues,” he stated.

He said he is ready to accept any job offered by the Pakistan Cricket Board in the country’s interest and added that if the PCB high command offered to me the national team coaching job, “It will be like a dream comes true for me and I will definitely accept offer to prove my worth by delivering the goods for the team and the country”, he added..

If the board decides in my favour and assign me as the national team coach my first aim will be to boost the players’ confidence and change their mentality to give them full confidence to beat any top side of the world.He said that Pakistan has got a great potential and team can beat any top sides of the world on any ground on their day.

“The thing we lack is the focus and we need to divert our attention to overcome this weakness,” he added. Sabih said that he is satisfied with the team which is given to me and he is sure that boys under the command of Umer Amin will perform to their abilities and will return home as the winner of the SAARC championship.

Our first class Ranji Trophy starts tomorrow, and BCCI is not owned by Indian government. We didn't send a team to Asian games too..

It's not about the ownership of BCCI. This tournament is about strengthning the sports relationships and in general between the South-East Asian countries and what signal are you guys sending to rest when you send this muhallateam to an international tournament?

And stop this rubbish about Ranji Trophy. There is QA-trophy beeing played in Pakistan but that doesn't hinder these players to represent their country.

Just imagine how proud the Indian U25 guys would have been representing their country, no matter what level.

It's not about the ownership of BCCI. This tournament is about strengthning the sports relationships and in general between the South-East Asian countries and what signal are you guys sending to rest when you send this muhallateam to an international tournament?

And stop this rubbish about Ranji Trophy. There is QA-trophy beeing played in Pakistan but that doesn't hinder these players to represent their country.

Just imagine how proud the Indian U25 guys would have been representing their country, no matter what level.

Last time IOA asked BCCI to send a second string team to Asian games, but BCCI didn't. We are happy that BCCI had sent a team to SAARC tounament.

The Afghans were too hot to handle for the young Maldivian side as they went down by 181 runs in the fourth match of the SAARC Twenty20 Cup today. The Afghanistan U25 side made a massive 313 runs in their 20 overs with Javed Ahmadi making a 50 ball century. Mohamed Shahzad made 82 runs and Gulbadin Naid made 72 runs. Husham Ibrahim was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 wickets for 63 runs.

In reply Maldives made 132 runs in 18.2 overs. Mohamed Mahafooz played a scintillating innings down the order hitting an unbeated 49 runs off 23 overs to take Maldives into double figures. Merwais Ashraf took 3 wickets

Obviously not, BCCI doesn't send a good team for tournaments like these, HK sixes which really pisses me off, there are so many decent u25 players but I guess they didn't want them to miss the domestic season.

In the second match of the day, the much anticipated encounter between Sri Lanka and Pakistan turned out as a one sided affair as Pakistan won the encounter by 7 wickets. The Sri Lankan U25 team batted first and made 157 runs in their 20 overs. Angelo Perera top scored with 41 runs. Some fast and accurate bowling from the Pakistan pace men were their main undoing as Asad Ali picked up 4 wickets for 28 runs.

In reply, Pakistan made 158 runs in 14.1 overs with Nasir Jamshaid making 97 runs from 44 balls. He was bowled on the last ball of the innings needing 3 runs for his century. Awais Zia made 40 runs and the Pakistan’s made up the deficit in 14.1 overs to secure a semi-finals top spot from Group 2. Nasir Jamshaid was adjudged man of the match.